A state investigation of the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency has turned up 2 million dollars in questionable spending.
The agency’s mission is to improve the quality of life in a 14-county region. It gets government money to run things like an intervention program for juvenile offenders and a service that helps shut-ins with their household chores. But an audit by the state comptroller’s office shows the UCHRA also paid for more than 160 cell phones in just one year. There was a trip for 30 people to Washington, D.C., complete with a visit to the wax museum, and meals that cost $175 a head.
The audit also questions the one-point-six million dollars in subsidies the agency sunk into its resort and training facility over the last decade and a half, with, quote, “no effort to recover this financial support.”
The findings bring to mind another agency with a similar name. The Upper Cumberland Development District is also being audited after allegations of nepotism and misspending.
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